Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi was the greatest female artists of the Baroque age. In Artemisia Gentileschi, critic and historian Jonathan Jones discovers how Artemisia overcame a turbulent past to become one of the foremost painters of her day.

As a young woman Artemisia was raped by her tutor, and then had to endure a seven-month-long trial during which she was brutally examined by the authorities. Gentileschi was shamed in a culture where honour was everything. Yet she went on to become one of the most sought-after artists of the seventeenth century. Yet she went on to become one of the most sought-after artists of the seventeenth century. Gentileschi's art communicated a powerful personal vision. Like Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois or Tracey Emin, she put her life into her art.

'Lives of the Artists'is a new series of brief artists biographies from Laurence King Publishing. The series takes as its inspiration Giorgio Vasari's five-hundred-year-old masterwork, updating it with modern takes on the lives of key artists past and present. Focusing on the life of the artist rather than examining their work, each book also includes key images illustrating the artist's life.

“"Jonathan Jones's neat little Artemisia Gentileschi (Laurence King) gives us everything we need to know about the life of an extraordinary woman from a rough bit of Rome who survived multiple misogynies to become one of the most sought-after artists of the 17th century." - The Guardian ?,”

In the world and words of Jones’s book, the 17th century could have happened yesterday, it is urgent, immediate and very compelling. Irish Times
Jonathan Jones’s highly readable Artemisia Gentileschi is the latest in the publisher Laurence King’s ‘Lives of the Artists’ series. (...) Jones gives a lively account of her life and career, and his enthusiasm for her work permeates his writing: the descriptive passages on her paintings are especially evocative. Apollo Magazine

Jonathan Jones is art critic for The Guardian and the author of Sensations: The Story of British Art from Hogarth to Banksy, as well as The Loves of the Artists: Art and Passion in the Renaissance and The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Artistic Duel that Defined the Renaissance.

Artemisia Gentileschi was the greatest female artist of the Baroque age and one of the most brilliant followers of the great Caravaggio. As a young woman she was raped by her tutor, and then had to endure a seven-month-long trial during which she was brutally examined by the authorities. Gentileschi was shamed in a culture where honor was everything. Yet she went on to become one of the most sought-after artists of the seventeenth century. Gentileschi's art communicated a powerful personal vision. Like Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, or Tracey Emin, she put her life into her art.

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